San Diego!
Knowing the Chicago winters, we decided to head to San Diego a couple of days early. The boat wasn't going to wait of us if we were delayed by a Chicago storm and we did not want to miss out. Plus... we can work anywhere, so sitting in a Hotel for a day or so did not sound like a terrible burden. So Thursday night we left and arrived late that night (or Early Friday morning depending on how you account for it) to the Sheraton.
So Friday was a bit of a wash. I had hoped to finish work at around 3pm since that was 5pm Chicago time. Alas, that was not to be and I should have known better. For those of you that did not know, from Thanksgiving until 1/30 (the day we left) I have had only one day off and averaged 14+ hours a day working as it was crunch time on a HR product that I was developing for my client. It's been a long go and I have been very ready to get on this cruise and unplug for a while. If I had thought about it, I would have realized that I was not going to finish early on Friday even if I had wanted.
Still, despite a worry that Saturday was not going to go well, we managed to get up late and head out to Balboa Park. Note to self: There is a reason that Uber does as good as business as it does. We had gotten a taxi from the concierge. While that seemed like a good idea, the Taxi driver took us both on a round about way and also to the wrong destination. That turned the ride from a $15 ride to a $22 one. It was a frustrating start, but a reminder that pre-contracted trip fees are very nice! For the rest of the trip we took Uber and did just fine.
The day was lovely and Balboa park was amazing. There are something like 20 museums there and plenty to walk about and see. We spent most of the afternoon there just wandering around and looking at some of the outdoor dance demonstrations, protests, people, vendors and the like. We also went into the Comic Con museum which was a lot of fun. It's a newer museum, but any place that you can play a round of Pac Man, is worth it!
Back after the day, we found a restaurant called the Lighthouse which was decent, but illustrated a problem in San Diego... EXPENSIVE FOOD. While it was tasty enough, it cost probably 2x more than a meal in Chicago would have. Early to bed, and early to rise. We got out on the bus with no fuss ready to board the ship!
